William Fowler
William Fowler was born on 25th November 1886, very probably in what was then one of the busiest dockland areas in the world, the east end of London. His father was also William, a labourer, and his mother was called Mary Ann.
He was baptised on 17th January 1887 at St Barnabas Church, West Silvertown. His parents' home address was just a few streets away at 3 Cranbrook Road. Regular readers will know how much I love an old map but in this case I think only an aerial photo really gives an idea of how Silvertown looked when William was a boy:
In modern terms the photo is from above Canary Wharf looking east and London City Airport is located on the strip of land between two docks in the upper half of the photo. The River Thames appears in the bottom right and the top right of the photo, with factories and industry lining its banks. I have added two red circles to the centre-right of the photo. The one nearer the man road (North Woolwich Road) is William's home address; the second circle just above it and to the left is St Barnabas's.
Tracking William through the 1891 and 1901 Census has not proven possible however. I assume he remained in the Silvertown area because the next definite date for him is in 1910 when, aged 23, he married Mary Blue on 17th September. She lived on Evelyn Road, in the same area of housing bounded by the dock and the main road.
Having heard the story so far, you would not expect to next find them in Bearsden, but in the 19i1 Census father, there they are:
William is 24, Mary 22. He gives his job as "chemical engineer" and to the right, where the Census asks which industry the record shows "expert in fuel economy". Finally, above the name Glenwood, someone has written 'Lockwood' - this was the name of the house in the 1905 Valuation Roll when owned by Mrs Wilhelmina Sarah Cooper. This suggests it was the Fowlers who originally named the house Greenwood.
This map from 1914 shows the house at the time the Fowlers lived there. The top half of the map is entirely recognisable today with Station Road and Ledcameroch Crescent, but the Pendicle Road area was still farmland. What a contrast to Silvertown!
We don't know what took William and Mary to Scotland - presumably his work. But who would need an expert on fuel economy in 1911? Possible candidates include the motor car industry (e.g. Albion's works in Scotstoun) or a shipbuilder (e.g. John Brown's at Clydebank). Presumably the aim of field economy at 1911 was to get greater range for a car or ship from the existing fuel rather than the greener idea we would have today. Another factor could be that Mary's father and two older siblings came from Greenock - could he have got work through connections via his in-laws? This seems less likely; Mary's father was an engine fitter, not the sort of man who would have known the senior manager at a Clydebank shipyard. But it might have made her less uneasy about moving so far from home.
How did William become a chemical engineer? This is a little more explicable, I think. While he clearly came from a modest background the Silvertown area had several chemicals works (one of which would cause the infamous explosion of 1917, a few hundred yards from William's birthplace, that killed 73 people, link). William could have learned while working at a factory, possibly as an apprentice.
We know the Fowlers were still at Greenwood on 4th December 1912 because their first son, William George Meldrum Fowler, was born there.
Britain joined the war in August 1914 and William enlisted on 12th November 1914. His occupation by this stage was a "machinery agent" for Fowler and Co, engineers, 170 Hope Street, Glasgow (Lion Chamber).
Note that the company William worked for is called Fowler and Co - was this a coincidence, was it a relative or was the company owned by William himself? The only reference I can find to a Fowler and Co in engineering is for a company based in Leeds - could this have been a small office in Glasgow?
William's medical form records him as being 5 feet, 8 inches tall (1.73m), brown hair, grey eyes, fresh complexion.
William joined the Royal Naval Air Service, which was the naval section of the Royal Flying Corps. Confusingly, the air force of the navy also had units equipped with armoured cars, formed when a squadron of aircraft based in Antwerp was retreating to Dunkirk and saw how useful cars could be in reconnaissance and rescuing pilots forced to land. William joined the newly formed RNAS Armoured Car Division.
We know he went to the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) in Turkey, landing there 25th April 1915; from this we can deduce he was either in the 3rd or 4th Squadron. However, armoured cars had little role in warfare dominated by fairly static and continuous lines of trenches so while some cars were landed, the troops seem not to have been used.
Five months later William was sick and returned to the UK (September 1915). This almost certainly did not mean Bearsden as by the 1915 Valuation Roll, Greenwood had a different tenant.
We can place William and Mary back in Scotland, this time in Cupar, on 13th October when their second son, Robert John, was born. William may have been training at the nearby RFC airfield at Leuchars at the time.
Six weeks later to the day (24th November), William was the other side of Dundee with the 18 Reserve Squadron at Montrose Air Station, a major training centre for British, Commonwealth and American pilots during both the First and Second World Wars.
He was flying a BE2c, a twin-seater plane, but seems to have been flying solo, so his training may have been well advanced.
See also the photo at the start of this profile.
Reports are sketchy but while flying low (coming in to land) the plane crashed onto the roof of a house in Bents Road, Montrose, and William was killed.
This is a Google Earth view from the south. Bents Road runs left to right this side of the football ground. The purple circle top left shows the location of the Montrose Air Station Museum, the WW1 airfield. The North Sea is just visible in the top right corner.
William was buried in Montrose at Sleepyhillock Cemetery:
Photo credit to Julian Tansell
Mary seems to have moved back to Ilford with her sons. In the 1921 Census she lived at 50 Auckland Road, Ilford:
In the 1939 Register, Mary and her sons lived with Catherine Blue (younger sister?) at 24 The Drive, Ilford.
William was an estate agent but was also a volunteer fireman, in the AFS. He was also in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. He married Marjorie V Broadrick in 1940, and I think they had a daughter, Gillian.
Robert was a cashier in 1939, and joined the RAF. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as a Flight Lieutenant in June 1945, having served with 524 Squadron (Coastal Command). He married Peggy Smith in Romford in 1941.
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